8 Places To Explore in Margaret River (Western Australia)

At my second day in Perth, my first day tour happened when I joined the trip to Margaret River, which located in south-west corner of Australia. The region starts from Busselton to Augusta on the shores of Geographe Bay. It is known for global wines, fine beaches, surfing spots, walking trails and beautiful caves. One day is not enough to see the whole region, but visiting some of its highlights such as tourist spots of the region can be the start or the opportunity to appreciate it.

The journey to the region started and ended in the town of Busselton. The trip includes visiting the longest jetty in southern hemisphere, lunch in brewery, tasting of wines, walking inside the cave, visiting lighthouse, shopping local products and dinner in a beach resort. It’s a fulfilling but relaxing 13+ hours of day tour.

Busselton Jetty

One thing that fascinates me on this place even though we had given a very limited time to explore the place, I took my chances to walk to the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. The experience to see the coastline without getting soaked by the sea and without the need of a boat was unforgettable experience. It is one of the unexpected adventure that I will treasure as traveler.

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Bootleg Brewery

The picturesque backdrop of this brewery restaurant made the place special. It was built just beside a lake. They designed the brewery with a “feel like home” to anyone and to enjoy and to feel the fresh air of the farmland.

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Sandalford Winery (Margaret River)

A quick visit in Sandalford wineries was a good one. To stop for sometime and to enjoy not only the tasting of wines but also to feel relax by just looking at the vineyards that surrounds the store. The special thing to learn about Sandalford, they are in winery business for more than 175 years. They produce global brand of wines.

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Mammoth Cave

We spent time to visit the famous cave in Margaret River region which is Mammoth Cave. The visit in the cave is pretty comfortable since it has boardwalk and stairways in-placed. And one great to learn inside the cave is about Australian Megafauna which an extinct animals and had roamed inside the cave which estimated to be 50,000 years old, a discovery that made the cave called as “Dawn of Creation”.

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Boranup Forest

Driving within the Boranup Forest can be considered a memorable experience, though anyone can think that it was just a forest but being inside the forest and see the towering trees of karri (the third tallest trees in the world) will be amazed on the scenery.

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Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

The visit in this cape was worthy. Discovery this part of Australia thought me a lot of things. In this place, I was able to discover the imaginary border between Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean where give the visitors to see these two oceans in just one place. The lighthouse precinct is a heritage and its little museum shows its colorful history.

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Margaret River Town

The town made me feel at ease even we had a short visit. We stopped here for a quick look around of the town and a chance for us to buy local products. The town is located in between of Bussell Highway that is why its a great stop when exploring the region.

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Abbey Beach Resort

This beach resort is located at Busselton and had a grand resort. Though we never got a chance to explore the resort itself, but we had dinner in one of its restaurant – The Atrium. I can say that even the restaurant is grand since its part of the resort hotel and I like the dinner that I chose while we were here.

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Mammoth Cave – “Dawn of Creation” & Boranup Forest

Mammoth Cave

After visiting Sandalford Winery in Wilyabrup, we moved again. After half an hour, we reached a cave located underground of Boranup part of Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. The main feature that the cave is proud of is, it is the home to ancient fossil remains of long-extinct giant animals known as Australian Megafauna. The cave shows its fossil jawbone of one of the giant marsupial species embedded within the limestone wall – 50,000 years after the animal roamed the forests above.

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Zygomaturus Jawbone in the wall of the cave – “The jawbone is older than the layer of flowstone capping the deposit, which was deposited approximately 44,000 years before present”

Our cave exploration starts from walking on a boardwalk that led us to the entrance of the cave. The boardwalk itself makes the visit comfortable to any guest. Mammoth Cave itself is proud to be the most easily accessible cave in all the show caves in the region and one of just a few caves in the south-west which contains fossils. What I like about the area of the cave is, it is covered by forest which called as marri forest.

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Boardwalk towards the Mamoth Cave

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Mammoth Cave Entrance

When we entered the cave, we were greeted by an open space of the cave where anyone can see the visible stalactites and stalagmites. The boardwalk continues inside the cave near the entrance and ended beside the stream that flows during winter. Our guide emphasize one of the significant stalagmite located where the water flows during wet season.

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Open space near cave’s entrance

Since it was not my first time to be in the cave, seeing stalagmite and stalactite are now common to me. Probably the thing that I enjoyed inside of it are the different formation of stalagmite and stalactite. Some stalactite are all too pointed which means kind of young stalactite, while some are so huge which we can say a very old one. Some stalagmite at the ground looks like some ancient civilization that we lost a long time ago. If my mind were more imaginative, I can think more.

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Stalagmite and Stalactites

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Stalactite

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Stalagmite

Naturally, because the cave becomes popular tourist spot in the region, they placed stairways and boardwalk inside the cave that even wheelchair can access. These can be enjoyed by any visitors and also protect the life of the cave itself. With this, I can say that Mammoth Cave is one of the most accessible cave that I visited to date.

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Flowstone

Aside from stalactite and stalagmite, another common thing to see inside Mammoth Cave are Flowstone where some were still crystallized and some are not anymore. And the most important thing in science and history, the fossils that found inside the cave.

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Fossils

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Inside the Cave

We climbed up and down, by following the pathways to see more of the cave. It is fascinating as the cave is another proof of time. Historically, early diggers of the cave excavated fossil collection of 10,000 specimens. And the most important discovery did during excavation was the fossil of the extinct animal in Australia. Historically,  the cave opened to tourist in 1904.

Boranup Forest

Coming from Mammoth Cave, on our way to our next destination while we took the Cave Roads, we had to maneuver to a rough road and got a chance to see and appreciate the natural beauty that Boranup Forest has to offer. Boranup Forrest consist of towering karri forest on the west coast of Western Australia between Margaret River and Augusta.

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Notes :
1. Plan to visit Mammoth Cave ? Please check latest information here. How about Boranup Forrest? Check here.
2. Location : W2QH+RV Boranup, Western Australia, Australia
3. Directions to Mammoth Cave and Boranup Forrest:
a. Join Day Tours from Perth or
b. Driving to Boranup
Official Website : Mammoth Cave, Boranup Forest

 

 

 

 

View At My Window : Boranup Forest

View At My Window (Post#41) : Boranup Forest

Photos of the day are all about Boranup Forest. Though we just pass through it, as we did not stop to see up close with any of the trees, it was a nice experience to have a quick drive in a rough road within Boranup Forest. The forest consists of towering karri trees which is a eucalypt native and can be found in southwest area of Western Australia. These photos are part of Margaret River (Western Australia) Region Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : trees, karri trees, eucalypt tree, Boranup Forest
Location : Boranup, WA, Australia
Transportation :
1. Join Day Tours from Perth or
2. Driving to Boranup
Official Website : Boranup Forrest